78 

 NON SUM QUALIS ERAM. 



WE well remember the tone of conversation in conservative society some 

 years ago, when the education of the poor had at last been conceded by 

 the authorities. We had not, at that period, left the university for the 

 world more than two years ; and having been good boys at the university, 

 and thought just as our tutors wished us to think, we had only just gained 

 confidence enough to begin thinking a little for ourselves : we had just 

 begun to feel uneasy under the restraints of university prescription and 

 Toryism, but had not yet shaken off the yoke. We were therefore not a 

 little dismayed by the moody misgivings of the highly respectable, indeed 

 elevated circle, to which our professional employment afforded us access. 

 The energetic amongst our Tory associates of the laity exclaimed, " Now 

 is the time for resisting the demands of the levellers ! This system of 

 education must not be suffered to commence ; its principle is essentially 

 vicious ! Let us crush the hydra at its first hiss, ere its venomous rage be 

 quite up, and its many heads reared in fearful unity against us." We 

 felt at the time that these men were wise in their generation ; we could 

 not subscribe to the selfish views by which they were actuated, but grant- 

 ing that they were, like good dogs, bound to keep all the tripe to them- 

 selves, it was wiser to try to deter the enemy from laying hold of it at 

 all ; to step up in advance of it, and snarl and growl, than to reserve 

 tooth and strength for a pull and haul at last, when, at all events, the 

 good thing must be sadly mangled in the tussle, if not torn bit by bit 

 entirely away. 



Our acquaintance amongst the clerical conservatives were just as hos- 

 tile, and on the same grounds, to the principle of general education, and 

 would have rejoiced to see their lay brethren push their hostility against it 

 to extremities. They could not help feeling that, as general knowledge 

 became greater, the importance of mere readers of prayers, and Scripture, 

 and sermons, must become less ; and not relishing the prospect of an 

 increased moral and philosophical activity, in order to preserve their im- 

 portance unimpaired, they could not help heartily wishing the projected 

 elevation of the people at the devil. Being, however, avowedly lights to 

 lighten the nation, their objecting openly to the principle of general illu- 

 mination, would have been too palpably gross to be generally tolerated ; 

 they submitted, therefore, though with an ill grace, and shifted their active 

 hostility from the principle of the measure to its provisions, endeavouring 

 thus to retard, as long as possible, the consequences they dreaded. We 

 recollect an instance of clerical tactics, grounded on this view of the 

 emergency of the case. It occurred at the period alluded to, about fifteen 

 years ago. 



After an ordination, a party of young gentlemen just manufactured into 

 spiritual pastors and masters for the community, were invited to dine with 

 the master manufacturer, the bishop ; by whom they were, in the course 

 of the entertainment, addressed as follows. " Let me beg of you tp pay 

 great attention to the schools in your respective parishes. Many objec- 

 tions have been urged against a system of general education. I am far 

 from asserting that those objections are not founded on correct views. But 

 the time is past for combatting the principle of education ; it is impossible 

 for us, if we were so inclined, to stem the current of the national feeling 



